Learning Turkish has been going well! I’ve definitely deviated from the learning plan in a few ways, but I think I’m mostly staying on track with my goals. I’m not going by my weekly goals that I had laid out in the learning plan, because Merve has me working through a Turkish textbook. I really like that, because it lays out vocabulary and grammatical concepts in a way I’m familiar with. I’m definitely still hitting my goals, though— I’m learning new vocabulary every week, and we’ve recently started learning how verbs and conjugations work, both of which were goals on my learning plan.
I think the class has been helpful for a theoretical perspective on learning languages. I haven’t really incorporated the concepts we’ve talked about in a practical way, but I think I have a better understanding how how language works and evolves and how we use it. I also appreciate the discussions we have on how culture and language interact, and I try to ask Merve questions about Turkish culture every lesson. Learning about the Turkish culture helps me understand the language a bit more— especially since I did a bit of research on the history of Turkish last week. I won’t ever fully comprehend the culture until I go to Turkey (which hopefully will happen at some point) but having a Turkish language partner, someone from Turkey who understands the culture, has been helpful in learning the language.
I definitely think I need to do a little bit more listening practice. As of right now, our main focus has been on speaking and reading, so whenever we do a listening activity, I struggle a little bit. Part of that is because I’m still learning the suffixes and how they function, so hearing a word with three or four suffixes tacked onto the end is confusing. I do want to improve my listening though, so I can have better and more effective conversations, limited as my vocabulary is.
Replies